Molecular Imaging in Cancer

TLDR

Medical imaging has rapidly advanced and now underpins clinical oncology, but its future lies in molecularly targeted agents that will enable clinicians to locate tumors and visualize specific molecular and biological processes influencing tumor behavior and therapy response. Molecular imaging achieves this by detecting targeted agents that reveal the expression and activity of specific molecules and biological processes such as proteases, protein kinases, apoptosis, angiogenesis, and metastasis. The resulting molecular imaging data are anticipated to improve cancer detection, personalize treatment, accelerate drug development, and deepen understanding of cancer origins.

Abstract

Medical imaging technologies have undergone explosive growth over the past few decades and now play a central role in clinical oncology. But the truly transformative power of imaging in the clinical management of cancer patients lies ahead. Today, imaging is at a crossroads, with molecularly targeted imaging agents expected to broadly expand the capabilities of conventional anatomical imaging methods. Molecular imaging will allow clinicians to not only see where a tumor is located in the body, but also to visualize the expression and activity of specific molecules (e.g., proteases and protein kinases) and biological processes (e.g., apoptosis, angiogenesis, and metastasis) that influence tumor behavior and/or response to therapy. This information is expected to have a major impact on cancer detection, individualized treatment, and drug development, as well as our understanding of how cancer arises.